Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Eigashima Distillery: 2013 Whisky-making Season

Today is the last day of whisky-making this year at Eigashima distillery. They only distill for two months a year with a crew of 4 people, making it the smallest whisky operation in the country. The rest of the year is set aside for the production of sake (about 6 months) and barley shochu (about 2 months). We were at the distillery a few weeks ago, so here’s a short update.

Whisky making this year started on May 31st. Forty tons of lightly-peated malt (5ppm) was used, i.e. 1 ton a day over 8 weeks. They’ve also switched maltsters and are now buying from Crisp Malting, like most of the craft distillers here. Spirit will be filled into ex-bourbon (Wild Turkey) and ex-sherry casks, but they're also planning on filling 15 second-fill recharred ex-shochu barrels.

As reported before on Nonjatta, it will take a while before they can release anything as old as their recent 15yo konara-finish single cask. The oldest stock in the warehouse is 6 years old and maturing in 2 ex-sherry casks. The plan is to release a 5-year old sherry wood single malt in the fall.

We’re also able to confirm a rumour that has been going around for a while now, namely that some of Eigashima’s output is maturing in Scotland. Independent bottlers Duncan Taylor bought 3,000 litres of new-make spirit and had it shipped over to Scotland where it is now maturing. It’ll be interesting to see if this will be more than just a one-off thing – Eigashima has no intention of providing other independent bottlers with new-make spirit because their output is far too small for that – and what will come out of this in a decade or two.

Whisky Bars Kyoto

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Introduction

This site is probably the most comprehensive source on the Japanese whisky scene in English. It is also independent. No one who writes for Nonjatta is employed or paid by Japanese distillers and/or retailers.